NO ECONOMIST FOR THAILAND NEXT WEEK

EXCLUSIVE: By The Bangkok Bugle

An industry source has confirmed to me that The Economist will not be distributing copies of its next issue in Thailand.
The publishers are already contacting distributors and agents to inform them of their decision to suspend distribution of the issue which is printed later today (Thursday) and would have arrived with subscribers and on the shelves throughout the kingdom over the weekend.
During 2009 six issues suffered similar distribution problems because of content that could have been deemed as being offensive to the monarchy. One can make an educated guess that the content in question this time will perhaps relate to the ongoing red shirt anti-government demonstrations.
In five of the cases last year the publisher took the decision to halt distribution however in one case the Thailand-based distributors refused to handle copies. At no time has the magazine been the subject of an official ban, and all the 'problem content' remained accessible online.